Umbrella
by storm-aurora
Summary: A sudden downpour forces Moon to find shelter at the first house she finds. It's going to be a long night.
1. Part 1

**Warning: dangerous levels of fluff ahead. Read at your own risk.**

Moon walks along the beach, shuffling her feet a bit and kicking up sand as she goes. She's tired of this bright, tropical paradise and she wants to go home. But at the same time, she's feeling a little lonely without Rotom. She could use some company - even if that company happens to be Sun's.

Suddenly, she feels a touch of something cool and wet on her arm. The first time, she ignores it because she thinks she imagined it. But by the second time and the third time, she realizes that there is something dripping on her. She glances up at the sky and the raindrops start to fall with greater frequency. "I thought it was always sunny in Alola!" she complains. "What's with this sudden downpour?"

But complaining about the downpour doesn't stop it from pouring down. Moon groans inwardly as she runs inland, hoping to find someplace to shelter until the storm passes. By the time she finds a house a little way from the beach, she and her clothes are thoroughly soaked.

She stumbles up the front steps of the little wooden house, which is raised up on stilts as a precaution for storms much worse than this one. The porch offers some cover, but it's not much. So, Moon knocks on the front door, hoping the residents of the house will be willing to give her shelter. The door opens, and she's shocked to realize that she recognizes the lively eyes, scruffy blue hair, and catlike smile of the boy who opens the door.

"S-Sun!?"

"Moon! Come in, come in!"

He opens the door wider and gestures for Moon to enter. She accepts his invitation, but only because she wants to get out of the rain, she tells herself.

She enters the house and immediately starts to shiver. "I'll get you a towel," Sun offers.

She nods and looks around. It's a lot tidier than she expects from Sun, and a bit big for one person to be living in. He heads over to a bathroom on the other side of the living room, which sports a small kitchenette at the entrance and a couple of couches around the center. There are two other rooms in the back and a row of windows on the right wall, along with a sliding glass door that opens out onto a side porch.

Moon also notices an umbrella stand next to the front door and notes that it would have been nice to have one of those when the rain started. Suddenly, Sun calls, "Catch!" She turns and sees him standing at the edge of the kitchenette, tossing a towel to her. The towel falls on the ground a foot away from her.

"What was that supposed to be?" she asks disdainfully, picking the towel up and wrapping it around her shoulders.

"Not that," he admits.

Moon grunts in response and takes off her hat, wringing the water out of it. "You can hang your clothes in the bathroom to dry," Sun says cheerfully. "I'm borrowing this house from an old family friend, so you can borrow some of her clothes if you want. They'll be in the master bedroom, on the left there."

Moon nods, and curiosity compels her to ask, "Do you live here alone?"

"Yep," he says. He picks his hat up off of the kitchenette counter and adds, "There's food in the fridge if you're hungry. Help yourself."

"Are you going somewhere?" Moon asks.

"Yeah," Sun replies. "The professor entered me in the battle tournament tomorrow..." He makes a face at this. "So I have to get the jobs I had scheduled for tomorrow done today."

Moon frowns. "You shouldn't be going out in such a storm," she says.

Sun shakes his head. "I'm a courier. I get paid for delivering goods on time, rain or shine."

Moon watches him as he puts his hat on and opens the door. He's kind of annoying sometimes, but she's still amazed by his dedication to his job as a courier and his goal to earn 100 million yen. That requires a kind of persistence that she's never seen in a guy before. "He's different, but in a good way," she murmurs. "Most of the time."

Sun glances back at her. "Did you say something?"

"No," Moon replies. She hesitates for a moment, then points to the umbrella stand next to the door. "But if you're going outside, you should take an umbrella."


	2. Part 2

Moon drapes her damp shirt over the side of Sun's bathtub, next to her shorts and her hat. She had already left her shoes to dry by the front door. She quickly changes into the clothes she had picked out from the master bedroom, a pair of navy blue capri pants and a purple halter top. She's grateful that Sun is letting her borrow his friend's clothes, because she would be miserable if she was stuck in her wet clothes and she's not about to walk naked around somebody else's house, even if it is empty.

She hangs the towel Sun gave her on a towel rack before leaving the bathroom, since her short hair is already relatively dry. She closes her eyes and stretches outside the bathroom door, listening to the rain's gentle patter on the roof. The soothing sound reminds Moon of rainy days back at home with her family, and she finds her mind wandering to wonder where Sun's family is.

A dull thud to her left suddenly jolts her back to reality. She quickly glances over at the glass sliding door. There's a familiar figure huddled against the glass. She gasps and runs over to the door, sliding it open. The little tan Pokémon hops inside and shakes some of the water from its feathers, letting out a miserable squawk. "You poor thing, you're soaking wet," Moon observes. "Did you run into the door thinking it was open?"

Rowlet ruffles its feathers again and gives her a quizzical look. "Oh, right. I suppose you'd like a towel," Moon says. She heads back into the bathroom and rummages around, eventually finding a clean towel underneath the sink. Rowlet hops over to the bathroom door and is waiting there for Moon when she comes out.

She rubs its feathers with the towel quickly, using friction to heat it up a bit and speed up the drying process. Rowlet rubs her hand affectionately when she finishes. "Are you Professor Kukui's Rowlet?" Moon asks. "You seem to have a bad habit of getting wet."

Rowlet lets out a gentle coo and flutters to the table between the two couches in the living room. Moon follows it, sitting down on one of the couches. "It's getting pretty late," she comments. She wants to stay awake until Sun returns, but she's starting to get sleepy. She yawns and leans back, stretching out along the couch and letting her right hand dangle just above the floor. Her left hand she rests on Rowlet's head, who has decided to join her on the couch. Listening to the rain on the roof and their steadying breaths, Trainer and Pokémon both drift off to sleep.

* * *

By the time Sun returns from his delivery work, the rain has stopped and night has fallen. The umbrella wasn't much use to him while he was using a Ride Pokémon, but it was useful to help keep his deliveries dry when he had to bring them somewhere that Ride Pokémon can't go. He figures he ought to thank Moon for advising him to bring an umbrella, since he wouldn't have thought to bring it himself.

"I'm back!" Sun calls as he enters. When Moon doesn't respond, Sun glances at the clock on the wall. Oh. He's just now realizing how late it is. He has a tendency to lose track of time when he's working unless he needs get something done by a specific time. "Not even Moon the night owl wants to stay up this late, huh?"

Sun slips his shoes off and tosses his hat onto the counter, then sprints for the couch. He's about to leap onto it when he notices the pair that already occupy it and he skids to a halt. "Is that Professor Kukui's Rowlet?" Sun wonders out loud. "How did it get here?" He frowns and folds his arms. "More importantly, I thought I told her to sleep in one of the bedrooms if she gets tired," he grumbles. Then he scratches his cheek. "Or did I just think about doing that?"

He leans over the couch to wake her up and ask her to move, but he hesitates before he touches her. If he wakes up Moon, he'll disturb Rowlet too. And hadn't she told him before that Rowlet is nocturnal? It must be exhausted if it's still asleep this late. Plus, as he looks down at her serene countenance, he notices that she looks a lot cuter when she doesn't have a frown on her face. Maybe he'll just leave them be.

Sun curls up on the floor next to the couch where Moon is sleeping, resting his head on a pillow he got from the other couch. Moon's hand is still dangling off the side of the couch, right near Sun's face. Perhaps it's his drowsiness taking over, or perhaps it's some subconscious feeling breaking through. But whatever the reason, Sun can't resist leaning forward and giving Moon's hand a light kiss before falling asleep.


End file.
